Tarot Spreads – Do this more, do this less

Occasionally I'll post up a Tarot spread that I use when reading for clients or for myself. I find it useful to have a 'box of tricks' in the form of different spreads to help draw out information in different situations.

Do this more, do this less

I'm going to start with the simplest spread I use on a regular basis. A simple, quick, four card spread for looking at what to do next.

It's pretty easy to read, as you might imagine.

Your current situation.

Do more of this.

Do less of this.

This is the outcome you'll get if you take this advice.

Sometimes I think we all need a bit of straightforward, practical advice. We are looking at a situation, trying to see the deeper meaning of it, trying to work out how it fits with our path, trying to understand our different conflicting emotions… and really what we want is to be given a rather direct 'get on with it' instruction. This is what this spread is for. Not for the deep stuff, but for the immediate piece of advice you can try and implement right away.

With clients I use it in a wide range of situations – I often use it as a 'follow up' to a more complex spread where I've been trying to help a client understand their deeper issues about a relationship, or about their career situation, or about their family. This takes it down to "That's all very well, but what you should do next is…"

The first card should act as a summary for what you understand about your current situation. The second card is the direction you are encouraged to go in for the best results. The third card is what you should avoid letting yourself do, even though it may seem like a good idea. The final card tells you where you are likely to end up by following this piece of advice.

Sometimes the meaning of this spread is very obvious. If I get a Knight of Discs for position 2 and Indolence for position 3 it's a very clear 'work harder, don't be lazy'. If it's a very watery card for 'do more' and a very firey card for 'do less' then it's fairly obvious that the right thing to do is calm down a bit and consider your gentler emotions more carefully, be more compassionate and less intense. But what I like about this spread is that it can give surprisingly subtle advice on occasions. Sometimes the two cards will have very similar meanings indeed, suggesting that what's required is a deeper understanding of how exactly to play the current situation.

Recently I did a reading where I had the discs card 'Gain' for do more, and the discs card 'Success' for do less. Those cards are very similar in meaning – they are both discs (so related to actions that are taken in the physical world), they are both positive (tending to indicate a positive outcome, good things coming) yet the spread suggested that one was right and the other was wrong. I realised, after quite a bit of thought, that the difference was that Success represented a specific outcome that one might be working towards, where Gain was a more general acceptance of the good things that might turn up. The spread was, in essence, saying 'Bring good things into your life (at a physical level) but don't be too prescriptive about what those good things are. Go for things that are great, rather than one, specific, thing that you think is the best thing.' It was about working for general positive things and not getting too attached to a particular outcome, or definition of success.

Anyway, I whip this spread out quite regularly to focus an idea and give a clearer direction of where to head next.